Housing: Low Cost Housing Sites

Low cost housing sites

Local authorities may provide housing sites at low cost to assist persons in housing needs to provide their own housing. Such housing may be provided either:

individually, with the help, if necessary, of the other social housing measures including shared ownership, local authority house purchase loans, mortgage allowance, etc.or

collectively, through the voluntary housing schemes, special group shared ownership housing projects or housing co-operatives.

If you are:

a person whose application for local authority housing has been approved by the local authority, or

a local authority tenant or tenant purchaser who wishes to buy a private house and to return your present house to the local authority,or

a tenant for more than one year of a house provided by a voluntary body under the Rental Subsidy Scheme who wishes to buy a private house and return your present house to the voluntary body, or

a member of a co-operative or non-profit housing group of which at least 75% of the members are either tenants/tenant purchasers or persons whose applications for local authority housing have been approved by the local authority, or

a person availing of a group shared ownership project sponsored by a local authority or a housing co-operative, you may be able to avail of the low cost sites scheme to obtain a site for the building of a new house.

What is the cost of a site ?

The local authority will decide the cost depending on a number of factors, such as the location of the site and the income and personal circumstances of the applicant. The cost may be as low as €127.

What is a group shared ownership project?

Local authorities or housing co-operatives may sponsor housing schemes specifically for persons who wish to avail of Shared Ownership. In such cases, low cost sites can be made available by the local authority in respect of each house in the scheme whether or not the prospective shared owner qualifies on an individual basis for the low cost housing sites scheme.